The Senate voted yesterday afternoon to approve the bill, which would move the case to a U.S. District Court in Florida. That court could override a state judge's decision to allow removal of the feeding tube of the brain-damaged woman.

President Bush, who had rushed back from his Texas ranch yesterday, signed the legislation less than an hour after the vote, the White House said.

House leaders had been forced to delay a vote until early this morning after Democrats objected to passing what they called a constitutionally questionable bill without any debate, in a case that has focused new attention on the issues of medical treatment, its withdrawal, and the role of lawmakers and courts in family matters.

Parties were left trying to round up enough members for a quorum, after sending them home last week for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation.

"We are very, very, very thankful to cross this bridge. And we are very hopeful that the federal courts will follow the will of Congress and save my sister's life," said Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri Schiavo's sister.

A lawyer for Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael, said the measure could be found unconstitutional.

But an attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents filed a request for an emergency injunction with a federal appellate court to have her feeding tube reinserted once the bill is passed. He also planned to make a similar request with the federal district court in Tampa, Fla.

"We are considering every second as precious in terms of saving Terri," said David Gibbs II, an attorney for her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

The president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, praised the actions of Congress. "We in government have a duty to protect the weak, disabled and vulnerable," he said in a statement yesterday. "I appreciate the efforts of state and federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have taken this duty to heart."

Opponents of the fast-tracked bill said congressional interference would only compound a long-running family tragedy.

"We are members of Congress. We're not doctors. We're not medical experts. We're not bioethicists," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said during three hours of debate on the House floor late last night.

"We don't know. We're not God. And we're not Terri Schiavo's husband, sister, brother, uncle or cousin," she said. "We're members of Congress. We make laws, and we uphold the law, and we swore to protect the Constitution. And we are thumbing our nose at the Constitution if this goes forward."

Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected Friday, three weeks after a Florida state judge allowed its removal as the end to a nearly seven-year fight between her parents and her husband. After failing to come to a deal late last week, congressional leaders worked through the weekend to broker a compromise and pass a bill that could result in the feeding tube being reinserted.

Schiavo, 41, was expected to die within two weeks unless her tube is reinserted, as has happened twice before.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Democrats had cost Schiavo two more meals with their tactics.

By throwing the case to a federal court in Florida, supporters of the measure hope that a judge will order the feeding tube reinserted while the case is reconsidered.

Fifteen years after Schiavo's brain was severely damaged - and years after her husband began fighting for the right to disconnect the feeding tube that sustains her - her case suddenly consumed Congress.